At first Great Britain rejoiced in the movement which Lafayette, Mirabeau, Necker, Sieyès and Camille Desmoulins inaugurated. These early revolutionists declared their purpose to set up a constitutional government in France such as Great Britain enjoyed, but when these moderate and constitutional reformers were thrown aside by the radical democrats who were determined to establish a republic—when this democracy had confiscated the lands held by the church, had issued paper money and had taken for national uses the abandoned estates of the immigrant nobles, the ruling powers of church and state in Great Britain became greatly alarmed, and it was resolved that war to the death should be waged against the principles of the French Revolution. Unless this were done, democracy might assert itself in Great Britain, and those things which had been taken from the people under forms of law might be restored in the same way to the original owners. Therefore William Pitt, Prime Minister and actual ruler of Great Britain, declared war upon France, blockaded her coasts, organized European kings into confederacies against her, and for more than a dozen dreadful years poured armed legions upon her. During this era of “blood and iron” men were torn from peaceful pursuits throughout Great Britain to supply the navy and the army with food for powder. As a necessary consequence, the demand for labor was greater than the supply; and as England depends especially upon her manufactures, it was there that the scarcity of labor was most injuriously felt. It is said that a deputation representing the manufacturers waited upon the Prime Minister and laid their grievances before him, asking the question, “_What must we do?_” Mr. Pitt is reported to have answered, “TAKE THE CHILDREN.” This story may not be true, but it is a fact that it represented precisely the emergency, and the manner in which that emergency was met. It also represents correctly the attitude of Mr. Pitt as defined in his speeches in Parliament. A cruel, unjustifiable war had devoured the laborer who should have been at his task. The laws had dragged him into the army and into the navy whether he wished to go or not. Press-gangs had prowled about the lanes and alleys clutching at every poor man who happened to be sound of limb, and had carried him off by force into a battleship, where he might be kept until the bride whom he had left at the church door had counted him as dead, or until the family which he had left contented and happy had been lost to the knowledge of men. _Having taken the father, the same remorseless class-greed demanded the child, and took it._ Upon the altar of English lust for money has been sacrificed more helpless men, women and children than ever fell before the ruthless hordes of Tamerlane or Attila.